A note of concern for Germany. I am a huge fan of Germany, but am worried about their defensive weaknesses. Tournament after tournament (WC and Euro) this remains the same concern for many years.

In the current qualifying rounds they allowed the most goals of 1st round qualifiers and more goals than many 2nd round contestants. Furthermore, 7 of the 10 goals came from Sweden. I reject the opinions of some who claim Germany did not take the second Sweden game seriously. They are professional and after loosing a 4-0 lead in the first round they had something to prove. Unfortunately, they only demonstrated the same defensive flaws.

I remain concerned because at the WC all the teams will be at the high quality, at least, that Sweden is. If they can pick Germany apart so easily there are serious concerns.

Well, I will be rooting for them any ways. I think if there are not significant improvements in the defense they will drop out in the semi-finals.

lol yeah, if Germany does not improve the defense it is just the semis. I like that spirit.
Good thing they always improve the defense for the tournaments.
"Tuniermannschaft" comes to mind.
So what does that mean for the result?!!!

I understand what you're saying, but I want them to play. They go out there every game knowing that they're going to get slaughtered. A great achievement for them is scoring a goal. They play for their flag and I give them respect for that. Andorra, the Faroes, Liechenstein etc... don't stand a chance, but go out there for every match and play... they're literally amateurs and it looks brutal, but how can you not respect that?

+7

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4 years ago

Whenever someone begins with " No offence..", you should always brace yourself for something offensive or silly.

And to add to what Chanman and Tree2 said, some talented players might get noticed and picked within international games. What kind of question is that really?

It's actually a very valid topic in my opinion. I remember Tahiti in the confederations and all though it might have been awesome for them to participate, it gave players top scorer awards and skewed the whole tournament. Honestly it's ridiculous to even include such teams in the running as they will never ever make it.

I can also see how it's part of the beautiful game to have some underdogs do some good s**t like Greece winning the euros. You never know in futbol and sometimes magical things can happen.

The way I see it though, it's not effecting the game in an immense way and there are far more positives to come out of it as stated by previous posts than negatives.

The other 3 countries you've mentioned are far more competitive and only lose by a few goals usually, sometimes only 1. In fact, Liechtenstein even picked up 2 pts by drawing a couple of games. The Faroes also drew 1 match.

Having said that. I like the suggestion I've heard of having a separate tournament for those teams with only the winner of it participating in the main qualifying.